


Kitsune no Yomeiri

by Mystical_Magician



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bonding, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), How Do I Tag, Kamar-Taj (Marvel), Kitsune, Kitsune Stephen Strange, M/M, Magic, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24971443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystical_Magician/pseuds/Mystical_Magician
Summary: Stephen wasn't quite as human as everyone believed. Not that he realized himself until he began searching through those futures on Titan. The consequences might be unusual, but for once it seems the good may outweigh the bad. Tony can't really complain, although he wished that Stephen's sense self-worth hadn't taken such a hit.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 7
Kudos: 129
Collections: IronStrange Bingo 2020, IronStrange Week 2020





	Kitsune no Yomeiri

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for @ironstrangebingo prompt: Kiss  
> Ironstrange Week 2020 Day 1: Monster
> 
> This was inspired by [this tumblr post](https://amethyst-noir.tumblr.com/post/621010120794603520/prompt-dr-strange-has-always-known-he-was), as well as the book I was reading at the time, _Night of the Dragon_ by Julie Kagawa. Although I really didn't closely follow either of them.
> 
> Thankfully I managed to keep this short in spite of the potential for more. I already have two long ironstrange WIPs I'm working on, not to mention some others in other fandoms I should probably get back to eventually. I don't want to start any other long writing projects until I've at least finished [Skin Deep](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20927750/chapters/49753169). That's also why this will probably be my one and only entry for Ironstrange Week.

_“One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets oneself be tamed...”_

**_-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry_ **

Tony watched from across the courtyard as Stephen spoke with another wizard guy. He rarely visited Kamar-Taj, but Stephen had needed to stay a couple of days for some sort of important ritual or meeting for…something. He’d been too distracted taking out his frustrations on a simulacrum to pay attention to the details. The fact that he’d still _needed_ to stay close to the sorcerer because he didn’t have the control to regulate or shield himself was infuriating. Not that he minded staying close to Stephen anymore, but he hated not really having a choice. That need to be in control made it really hard to surrender, whatever the fuck _that_ meant in the magic context.

He was too far away to hear what the pair were talking about, but the body language was more important to him. The guy he didn’t know was tense and wary throughout the entire conversation. That Stephen’s body language remained somewhat loose told him that they weren’t preparing for some sort of threat or attack.

The obvious conclusion made him angry. He stifled it as he went over to join Stephen, now standing alone.

The other turned to greet him, expression neutral. Tony might have bought it, but either Stephen was still adjusting to his new appendages, or he forgot that even hidden by glamour, Tony was the one person who would always see them. He’d gotten pretty good at deciphering the twitches of kitsune ears and nine tails, and right now he was distressed. As cold and stoic as he might appear, the distrust of his fellow sorcerers hurt him.

“Ready to blow this joint?” Tony said. “I’m all full up on peace and quiet.”

“And drooling on priceless tomes?” Stephen smirked. A quick glance showed his tails relaxing, tips of burning white _kitsunebi_ fading into a gentler glow. Funny how the white tips were ordinary fur when they were corporeal and unhidden, unless Stephen willed them to flame.

“On a completely unrelated note,” the doctor generously allowed Tony to herd him more quickly to the permanent gate to New York, “should Wong _really_ be slacking off so often at our – your Sanctum? As the Librarian, he should really be spending more time here, halfway across the world, where his actual position is. Maybe you should ward him off for a while.”

“I’ll let him know you said that.” His multihued eyes glittered mischievously above a faux innocent half smile.

Tony imagined him actually doing that and saw his life flashing before his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh?”

“If I die, you die with me. That’s what got us here in the first place.”

🦊

Stephen couldn’t remember exactly when it happened. More than 14 million futures was too much even for someone with perfect recall. But around a quarter of the way through his viewing, perhaps, was when he began to suspect that he wasn’t completely human. The answers came more quickly after that, less than a hundred iterations to discover that he was, in fact, a kitsune.

He learned more and more about what he was and what he could do. He gained knowledge and power.

And tails.

Apparently his physiology cared more for lived experiences than linear ones. The body reflected the mind and soul.

Well. He _was_ considered a spirit.

He never learned just how he had come to be Stephen Strange. Whether he had been orphaned as a kit and adopted by his human family, or whether he had shapeshifted for a trick and something had gone wrong, wiping his memory. It didn’t matter (it did, but not now, not yet, the fate of the universe came first). The more tails he gained, the better their chances against Thanos. Though always, always they failed without Stark.

By the time he’d settled on their winning timeline and Stark had pulled him from the Time Stone’s power, Stephen had lived for centuries. He held his fully human shape, still, but he could feel the twitch of fox ears and nine tails hidden away.

A nine-tailed kitsune was nearly as powerful as the gods, and Stephen had needed every bit of that power in the battle against the mad Titan, pitting his magic against the inexperienced yet cunning wielder of the several Infinity Stone. Kitsune shapeshifting and illusions against the Reality Stone.

But Stephen had never relied solely on power to win. It was his intelligence he valued. Tricks, as Thanos called them. How apropos for the ultimate trickster.

And he was, wasn’t he? Once he’d suppressed his building freak out and identity crisis, he’d been able to sit down and really consider it. None of his colleagues would have called Dr. Stephen Strange a trickster. He wouldn’t have called himself one either, and Wong had certainly shot down his jokes enough times.

But in a way he’d outfoxed death to maintain a perfect patient record. And he had been essentially helpless in the face of Dormammu, and yet had defeated him in the end.

For a one-tailed kitsune, he had certainly gone big.

So at nine tails, he arranged the chess board and set into play Thanos’ defeat.

🦊

Tony sprawled across the deceptively comfortable couch in Stephen’s sitting room, staring up at the lean sorcerer backlit by the sun streaming through the windows. The Cloak was off doing its own thing, changing Stephen’s silhouette. His tails fanned out behind him, and Tony was struck by both a sense of déjà vu and desire.

The final battle against Thanos had been a blur of desperation and fear, but the superhero didn’t think he would ever forget seeing Stephen going toe to toe with the Titan, sudden fox features springing into being and alight with power that looked like flames.

And then at the end a glimpse of that ethereal being, crouched over Tony, features twisted with desperation as he poured that power into Tony’s failing body, ravaged by the power of the Stones.

“I hate how they treat you,” he said suddenly, voice rough with the surge of emotion.

Stephen looked taken aback.

“Your…cult. Your sorcerers.” Tony waved his hands. “The way they look at you and talk to you.”

The taller man’s lips thinned, and he crossed over to sit next to him. “I understand why they are wary.”

“You’re a fox. So goddamned what,” the inventor scowled.

“You know what.” They’d been over this before. “Whether benevolent or not, a kitsune is still a trickster and a nine-tails is the most powerful of all. They can’t even be sure that I’m not a nogitsune and just very good at hiding it, considering my black coloring. It’s honestly made me really think about nature versus nurture, and whether I’ve changed only because of all the futures I saw. Giving away the Time Stone on top of everything else…Well. I’m lucky, actually.”

“Bullshit,” Tony snapped. He hated Stephen’s logic. His martyr tendencies. His shaky sense of self-worth that depended almost entirely on what he could do instead of who he was. “Don’t make excuses for them. Wong’s the only with any brains.”

He hated, also, that Stephen couldn’t believe him. Because in saving his life, in pouring all of that magic into his dying body, he had accidentally bound Tony to him. Somehow – and no one, not even Stephen, could figure it out – Tony had become Stephen’s _hoshi no tama_. A vessel containing a portion of Stephen’s magical power, technically, although Tony suspected that it would be more accurate to say that he contained at least a portion of Stephen’s soul.

That was why Tony couldn’t spend too long away from him. Why he was actually receiving training in the Mystic Arts. Until he could gain control of magic, he couldn’t spend too long away without that separation being deadly to them both. And until he could defend himself magically, he was a vulnerability, an easy target for enemies that wanted to kill Stephen.

Destroy the _hoshi no tama_ , kill the kitsune.

But just because they were connected, it didn’t mean that Tony was an extension of Stephen. He impulsively gripped the nearest – surprisingly soft – tail firmly to get Stephen’s attention, interest sparked when he saw the full body shudder go through him. He noted that observation for later.

“Don’t,” he demanded. “Don’t dismiss this. Stephen…”

“What?” he snapped. “What exactly can I do to change this?”

Tony sighed. There wasn’t really anything to do. Not really. But the toll this was taking on Stephen’s sense of self-worth was also unacceptable.

Ah, well. Impulsivity had always worked well for him – ignoring all the times that it really hadn’t.

Tony shifted and slung a leg over Stephen’s legs so that he was sitting in the other man’s lap, arms over his shoulders. He felt shaky hands automatically rest on his hips as he brought his face close to Stephen’s. There was shock there, and nerves, but also… Well, the dilated pupils were a hopeful sign. And Stephen couldn’t exactly kick him out of his life right now or for the foreseeable future. The deck was as stacked as he could make it without any built up attempts at seduction.

He ignored the racing of his heart. The shortness of his breath and the heat that was building up beneath his skin. “Just don’t you dare start to believe that you deserve this treatment. That you _owe_ them somehow. I’ve been down that road and I’ll be damned if I just sit by and watch you follow me.”

Stephen licked his lips, and wow, that was very, uh, distracting. He almost missed the moment the other man buried his issues for the time being.

“And how will you…hmm…divert me?”

Holy shit, that deep voice purring was extremely distracting and definitely a good sign.

Tony slanted his lips across Stephen’s and devoured him, even as one of his hands slid up to stroke those soft, tempting ears.

The response to _that_ move was very promising.

**Author's Note:**

> kitsunebi - fox fire  
> hoshi no tama - star ball


End file.
